20080722

The ACLU reports that Michael Mukasey has demanded that Congress “authorize indefinite detention through a new declaration of armed conflict,” and that they “subvert the right of habeas corpus with a new scheme of procedures that will hide the Bush administration's past wrongdoing.” The ACLU’s analysis of these demands lays everything out clearly:

"Mukasey is asking Congress to expand and extend the war on terror forever. Anyone that this president or the next one declares to be a terrorist could then be held indefinitely without a trial," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

This is jaw-dropping stuff. The Attorney General of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer in the US government, is proposing to undermine the Constitution itself! Michael Mukasey has done nothing to uphold US law; instead, he has acted to defend and cover up George W. Bush’s rampant lawbreaking. This in itself is an abdication of his responsibilities. But these latest statements are beyond the pale: Mukasey is supporting the establishment of an executive branch that is beyond the rule of law itself.

What the Bush administration has done over the past seven and a half years has all the feel of a coup d’etat – only, in this case, instead of an outside power attempting to seize control, it is an inside power doing so. George W. Bush and his cronies have succeeded in politicizing nearly every office in the federal government, staffing them with Bush supporters and blocking the appointments of anyone critical of the administration’s policies. The result has been a government that readily ignores the very law of the United States to defend Bush and his agenda.

It was only due to the sheer incompetence of Bush and his cronies that America has been spared from a complete right-wing takeover. Nearing the end of the Bush’s tenure in office, his policies have begun to fail, and a minority of elements within the government have begun to fight back. In response, the Bush administration has become virtually histrionic, raging that anyone would have the audacity to question them. (Of course, that applies only to those within the government itself; the rest of us don’t matter in their equation.)

In short, this has all the hallmarks of fascism. I am not saying that just because I disagree with them; fascism is a distinct political movement, and the policies of the Bush administration fit solidly into its framework.

If the Attorney General himself is willing to openly endorse overturning the Constitution, then I have to wonder how far the Republicans are willing to go in order to hang onto the reins of power. In other words, will there even be a presidential election in November? That is a strong question to pose, and it would have been unthinkable in America even ten short years ago. Of course, at that time, the government had not engaged in torture or indefinite detentions in contravention of the Geneva Conventions, or legalized warrantless spying on its own citizens. What is a rigged or suspended election on top of all that?